Between prom dresses and bridesmaids dresses, we’ve seen a lot of really terrible gowns lately. What is Jessica McClintock doing to us? But it’s worse than you know—there’s a lot of weird science that goes into tacky formal dresses. You know about the engineering marvels of the Curiosity Rover, but here’s the truth… »7/22/15 11:00am 7/22/15 11:00am

Space colonization has reached an impasse, for reasons far more fundamental than a lack of money for the Space Shuttle program. There is simply no way humans can travel easily offworld without using massive amounts of rocket fuel to escape the gravity well — and that’s both expensive and environmentally unsustainable.… »6/15/15 2:06pm 6/15/15 2:06pm

For centuries, the best chemists in the world struggled every day to create the molecules that your own cells manufacture every second. Then they discovered how one group of atoms let them make stuff that only living cells could make, until then. Here’s why we no longer need life to create the products of life. »6/09/15 11:27am 6/09/15 11:27am

There’s a reason why we call it the “march of progress” instead of the “moonwalk of progress.” Technology is meant to move steadily forward, but there are still plenty of times when tech has inexplicably reversed course on us. One of the most striking examples are Damascus swords. »5/29/15 9:30am 5/29/15 9:30am

When you play a game of billiards, you’re usually hoping to hear the satisfying clack of the balls. You’re probably not hoping to hear a sound like gunfire as your cue ball connects with the eight ball. But if you got your hands on some of the earliest plastic billiard balls, that was a chance you took. »5/19/15 8:00am 5/19/15 8:00am

Ennion made me. Those were the words molded on glass vases and jars that survived centuries of dust, change, and trauma all over the classical world. But who was Ennion? And how, in the early years of the world, did his glassware become so famous? »3/25/15 8:34pm 3/25/15 8:34pm

Bernard Meyerson, chief innovation officer of IBM and chair of the World Economic Forum's Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies, today published the Meta-Council's list of the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2015. »3/04/15 6:00pm 3/04/15 6:00pm

You do not become a forest-floor-creeping mollusk on good looks alone; to crawl effectively, you need something with which to lubricate your wriggling, slimy, slithering self. Mucus, secreted in abundance from your entire body, is just the ticket. But slug slime is good for a lot more than whole-body lubrication. »3/03/15 7:00pm 3/03/15 7:00pm

If you're familiar with aerogel, you know that it's one of the lowest-density materials on Earth. But even if you're versed in this supermaterial's physical properties, you've probably never thought about what aerogel sounds like. This video answers that question. »2/25/15 2:40pm 2/25/15 2:40pm

What do a butterfly's shimmering wings, a fish's opalescent scales, and a peacock's brilliant feathers have in common? Yes, their colors are beautifully iridescent. But they are also produced by the physical interaction of light with sophisticated nanoscale architecture that we are only just beginning to understand.»2/19/15 2:14pm 2/19/15 2:14pm

Step aside, spider silk — you've just been replaced by the limpet as the creature with the strongest biological material known to science. It's a discovery that could result in high-tech materials even tougher than Kevlar. »2/18/15 8:40am 2/18/15 8:40am

Whether it's mobile phones or electric cars, consumers tend to be put off by the long recharge times and limited battery life. Now, thanks a team of engineers at Nanyang Technology University, there's a lithium-ion battery on the horizon that dramatically improves both of these limitations. »10/14/14 8:40am 10/14/14 8:40am

To build a better form of armor, a group of chemists have created a molecule that looks like a six-pointed "Star of David." When millions of these molecules knit themselves together, the result could become the lightest, strongest shielding the world has ever known. »9/22/14 4:40pm 9/22/14 4:40pm

Engineers looking for a material strong enough to support the tremendous forces exerted by a space elevator will want to pay attention to this remarkable new breakthrough. Researchers have weaved microscopically small diamonds into ultra-thin nanothreads. »9/22/14 2:40pm 9/22/14 2:40pm

One of the more famous effects in physics is the Coffee Ring Effect. Leave a drop - or puddle - of coffee on any surface and you'll come back to a dark ring of stain. This video shows you actual footage of your coffee particles making your coffee stain. »8/24/14 9:00am 8/24/14 9:00am